Data Center Virtualization and its Future

Data centers are at the heart of any organization’s working and well-being. Safety and security of the data center are the ultimate goals of an organization. With terabytes of data, backup and restoration are not easy either. Consider the old times, when the backups were made in the form of rows and rows of tapes marked with records; these were definitely not easy to manage. The modern times have made the situation more complicated as all businesses and organizations have IT-centric data. While it is easier to manage it in the form of high-tech servers, their backup and ultimately the safety of data is as crucial as it ever was.

Big organizations rely on other corporations like Teradata to store and analyze their data. But what about small businesses and organizations? Simply stated, they do not have the budget to employ such organizations like Teradata for their data. They also do not have the required space and capacity to build fully-functional data centers on their own. To solve this dilemma, physical data centers are being converted into virtual data centers.

Data virtualization entails minimal hardware and maximum software where data will be stored. The realization of this concept has already begun with the introduction of cloud-based platforms where services, products, and related data is being maintained on a virtual software rather than hardware. Tremendous leaps have been made in this regard in the past few years and a cost effective, business-centric and easy to use technology has been developed. Although, complete virtualization of data centers is yet to take place but it seems that the day is not too far.

Our lives have been made easy by moving testing platforms and even product building platforms in the virtual world. The next big leap would be the virtualization of data centers. It seems that the future of data center virtualization is going to be entirely cloud based. Intel, IBM, and other companies have started building future architectures based on the concept of data-center virtualization. But who will win this race still remains unanswered. One such advancement in this area has been made by the introduction of VSAN (Virtual Storage Area Network) built into the hypervisor. As the name suggest, it is a software based solution.

Initially, it may seem that to put this concept into practice and to be able to acquire a virtual space for data is going to be extremely costly; but it will have long term benefits. Look at it this way: a virtual data center will take no space especially if we have companies like Intel, which are managing the storage and taking responsibility to backup and keep your data safe. It will be cost-effective and will be less risky for an organization. Above all, it will help lessen the load on our green planet since hardware generates heat which perpetuates the issue of global warming.

Data Centers’ virtualization will be a giant step up for the world as with the increase in businesses around the globe, there is exponetial growth of data and data to be managed in every sector and industry around the world.

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I have 6 years of experience as an IT Business Analyst and 3+ years as an IT Project Manager. I am a complete bookworm and a geek with deep interest in all things Quantum! In my spare time, I love reading, travelling and star gazing.